BURNDAYRAZ ("Burn Their Ass") is one of the Glyphs you can find in a game of Desktop Dungeons. When used, this Glyph causes damage to an enemy monster. This Glyph appears in each and every dungeon you play.

Usage

BURNDAYRAZ is used by clicking it, and then clicking on the target monster in the dungeon. That monster will be the target of the BURNDAYRAZ effect.

Each use of BURNDAYRAZ costs 6 Mana, except for the Wizard for whom it costs only 5 Mana, and the Berserker for whom it costs 8.

The cost of BURNDAYRAZ for a Half-dragon is 99 Mana, essentially rendering it unusable.

Effect

When used on a monster, BURNDAYRAZ inflicts 4 Magical Damage per character level on that monster. At level 1 you inflict 4 damage per use, at level 2 you inflict 8 damage, and so forth.

Due to the Magical nature of this damage, monsters with Magic Resistance will suffer less damage from the spell according to the level of their resistance. For instance, a monster with 25% Magic Resistance will only suffer 3/4 of the normal damage caused by BURNDAYRAZ.

Availability

BURNDAYRAZ is unique among Glyphs in that it will always appear in each and every dungeon you play, regardless of your chosen dungeon type, your chosen class or race, or the appearance of any other Glyph.

Stand-Alone Use

BURNDAYRAZ is one of two methods of inflicting damage on enemies, the other being direct Melee combat. The advantage of BURNDAYRAZ over Melee combat is that when casting this spell on a monster, it does not get the opportunity to retaliate (I.E. strike you back). Therefore, as long as you have Mana to keep casting BURNDAYRAZ, you can keep damaging the enemy without losing any Health, or suffering any effects from that monster's abilities.

This is essentially the primary method for spellcasting characters to defeat their foes. In essence, all characters (except the Half-Dragon) can take advantage of BURNDAYRAZ to inflict extra damage on their enemies, saving themselves one or more Melee attacks to conserve Health at the expense of Mana.

Several characters, including primarily the Wizard and Vampire, will rely exclusively on BURNDAYRAZ instead of melee combat. This also applies to characters who choose to follow Mystera Annur, a god who practically nullifies your Melee attack strength.

Being able to increase your Mana enough to cast BURNDAYRAZ several times in a row is very beneficial. Nonetheless, you will probably prefer to pick up a spell combo that maximizes your potential with this spell.

Spell Combos

APHEELSIK

The most basic use of APHEELSIK is to attack a monster until you run out of Health, cast APHEELSIK on it, and then explore the dungeon to regain Health and Mana as required while the monster cannot regenerate. With BURNDAYRAZ, the same method applies - cast BURNDAYRAZ repeatedly on the monster until you have only enough Mana left to cast APHEELSIK, then explore to regain your mana.

This allows defeating powerful monsters by making several attack runs with BURNDAYRAZ. If BURNDAYRAZ and APHEELSIK are used exclusively in these attack runs (I.E., without adding in Melee attacks), the monster will never get the chance to reduce your Health. This basically means that there is no limit to how powerful a monster you can take down - except the number of unexplored tiles remaining for regeneration between attack runs. You can (theoretically) take on a level-9 monster while you are still at level 1, and still come out triumphant.

For the ultimate three-glyph-combo, add BLUDTUPOWA. This will minimize the number of tiles you need to explore between each attack run, thanks to the increased Mana regeneration. And since you're not losing any Health while doing this, you can simply leave BLUDTUPOWA turned on all the time, as you do not require Health regeneration at all.

More commonly however, you will find that you want to mix together BURNDAYRAZ and Melee Attacks, to cause as much damage as possible to the monster before Poisoning it. This is fine, as long as you make sure that the monster can't kill you with one hit. Make sure you exhaust both your Mana and Health before using APHEELSIK (and always remember to save the 5 Mana points required for APHEELSIK...)

Always remember however, that APHEELSIK is useless again the Undead, and is unreliable to say the least against monsters with Magic Resistance.

BLUDTUPOWA

The natural choice, once it becomes unlocked. BLUDTUPOWA doubles your Mana regeneration at the expense of no Health regeneration. Since BURNDAYRAZ costs Mana, but allows you to attack without taking Damage, this will increase the frequency at which you can cast BURNDAYRAZ without any downside.

Naturally, this only applies for heavy spellcasters who do not rely on a mix of BURNDAYRAZ with Melee attacks. Such characters WILL need to regenerate their health after every attack run, unless they only need one or two Melee attacks for the little extra damage, and do the rest of the work with BURNDAYRAZ. This is especially true when choosing an Elf and a Melee-oriented class - he can cast plenty of Fireballs, then finish up with a Melee attack to finish off the enemy.

As a third Glyph, your best choice is usually APHEELSIK. However, depending on your class, you might even prefer more melee-oriented glyphs like GETINDARE or BYSSEPS for your finishing blow. This is especially true when, after casting as many BURNDAYRAZ as you can, you keep having leftover Mana and nothing to do with it. You might be able to use that Mana to enhance a finishing Melee attack on the enemy.

CYDSTEPP

CYDSTEPP and BURNDAYRAZ are almost polar opposites in terms of the characters that use them. Characters who rely on CYDSTEPP tend to have a powerful Melee attack, and due to the high Mana cost of that Glyph will rarely have enough Mana left over to cast BURNDAYRAZ at all. The opposite is also correct, with characters who rely on BURNDAYRAZ preferring to cast it as often as possible, leaving no Mana for CYDSTEPP. They also tend to have weaker Melee attacks, unsuitable for use with CYDSTEPP to begin with.

For this reason, combining CYDSTEPP and BURNDAYRAZ is not recommended, and is difficult to say the least. You will rarely come across situations where it is actually necessary to use both Glyphs.

GETINDARE

If your character does not have an abysmal Attack Strength, he can try combining BURNDAYRAZ with GETINDARE to save himself some Mana. When using this combo, the character begins his attack by casting as many Fireballs as possible while leaving 3 Mana for the GETINDARE. When the monster's been sufficiently wounded, the hero then casts GETINDARE and attacks the monster in Melee combat, killing it outright with First Strike (I.E. not suffering any damage from the monster, nor any adverse effects it may possess).

This is a tricky combination, which requires you to pay careful attention to the amount of damage your Fireballs and Melee Attack can cause together. It does, however, allow characters with low Health (most spellcasters) to kill monsters that would otherwise kill THEM with one strike, and saves 3 Mana in the process (the cost difference between GETINDARE and BURNDAYRAZ). Sometimes it can save up to 9 Mana, since the damage a character inflicts with a Melee Attack is usually slightly higher than the damage from their BURNDAYRAZ.

This method can be safely combined with BLUDTUPOWA as the third Glyph, since despite using your Melee attack, you will not be suffering damage thanks to your First Strike capability and thus won't require Health regeneration. You can also combine it with BYSSEPS as the third Glyph, enhancing your attack strength for that last hit at the cost of 2 extra Mana.

Remember: This method does NOT work against monsters who possess First Strike themselves, like the Gorgon or Goblin. They will still inflict damage on you regardless of GETINDARE, and Gorgons can outright kill you if your health is just below 50%.

Specific Targets

Animated Armor

This monster, unique to the Factory dungeon, is often referred to as the best possible target for BURNDAYRAZ in the entire game.

Animated Armor has only 1 Health point, and a number of "Protection from Death" layers equal to its level. To remove one layer of "Protection from Death", all you need to do is attack the Animated Armor once - be it in Melee or by BURNDAYRAZ - regardless of how much damage you actually cause. The Armor does not regenerate its protection layers when exploring.

This means that Animated Armor requires the same number of hits to kill every time (equal to its level plus 1). For Melee-oriented characters this is a bit of a problem, because higher-level Armor causes massive damage when attacked. Spellcasters however do not see this as a problem, because BURNDAYRAZ does not allow the target to retaliate. Therefore, all they need to do is cast BURNDAYRAZ on the Armor as many times as required, regenerating Mana each time they run out, until the Armor is dead.

The bottom line is that this allows spellcasters of ridiculously low level to attack Animated Armor of the highest level they can find, safely, and kill it within a set number of BURNDAYRAZ uses. For instance, a level 9 Animated Armor will die after BURNDAYRAZ has been cast on it 10 times, regardless of how much damage your BURNDAYRAZ actually does. If such a high-level Armor is killed by a level 1 hero, the hero will immediately jump up to level 6. This costs a total of 60 mana, a ridiculously-low cost for so much experience!

In practice, any character who finds and can use BURNDAYRAZ can take advantage of the same strategy, and it's pretty much required for some classes in the Factory dungeon.

For the most devastating effect, combine this with BLUDTUPOWA, and you'll only need to explore a total of up to 30 tiles to perform this trick.

Magic-Resistant Monsters

In the same way that monsters with Physical Resistance can take less damage from Physical Attacks, monsters with Magic Resistance take less damage from BURNDAYRAZ.

These monsters include the Goat, Golem, and several unique Bosses. The most resistant monster in the game right now is the Golem Boss "Iron Man", who has a whopping 75% Magic Resistance. In other words, he will only suffer 1/4 of the damage your BURNDAYRAZ normally inflicts.

This makes such monsters extremely poor targets for BURNDAYRAZ. In dungeons that contain many of them (especially the Factory), BURNDAYRAZ becomes a lousy weapon to depend on, even for the heaviest spellcasters.

There are several methods to deal with this issue, when such monsters are abound. The most obvious one is to attempt to develop your character's Physical Attack, using Glyphs other than BURNDAYRAZ to enhance it further. This can be tricky, but doable, even with extremely heavy spellcasting classes.

A simpler but rarer possibility is to seek out Mystera Annur, who can single-handedly remove all Magic Resistance from all monsters. In this case, BURNDAYRAZ not only remains useful, but will probably even become stronger thanks to Mystera's other boons. Of course, this depends on your ability to find both the BURNDAYRAZ and Mystera as early as possible in the dungeon.

One final possibility when faced with such monsters or Bosses is to seek out Jehora Jeheyu, and attempt to acquire his "Polymorph" boon. This will change all monster types to randomly-selected ones, potentially changing the Magic-Resistant enemies to ones that do not possess this resistance at all. Again, this is tricky and depends greatly on luck, and so it a difficult choice.

Monsters with low Health

In most dungeons, Spellcasters tend to target monsters with below-normal Health. This includes the Gorgon and Wraith, and to some extent the Imp.

These monsters make up for their low Health by having potentially dangerous abilities. For instance, the Wraith inflicts Mana Burn, which is something most characters don't like to suffer.

For dedicated users of BURNDAYRAZ however, those abilities are meaningless. They will only be used when the monster strikes the hero in Melee combat, and with heavy BURNDAYRAZ use that never actually happens. Therefore, to such heroes these monsters are weak opponents who cannot make use of their dangerous abilities.

Killing these monsters requires fewer castings of BURNDAYRAZ than other, healthier monsters. Naturally, this means that the hero can attack much higher-level versions of these monsters than normal, depending only on the number of BURNDAYRAZ uses the hero can make in a row. As long as no Melee attack against these monsters is made, the hero remains perfectly safe.

Note that for Imps the situation is slightly different, because BURNDAYRAZ will cause them to Blink to another location in the dungeon. Still, that isn't inherently dangerous, it can just be a little wasteful. And it doesn't always go bad, even when you haven't explored much yet.

Specific Classes

Wizard, Sorcerer, Bloodmage

All three spellcasting classes will probably find themselves using BURNDAYRAZ as their primary attack if possible.

The Wizard is perhaps the foremost of these three, as his Attack Strength is lower than normal and will need BURNDAYRAZ to pose a threat to any monster. And since BURNDAYRAZ only costs 5 Mana for the Wizard, he can cast two of them in a row from the start of the dungeon. Couple this with his ability to reach BURNDAYRAZ quickly (thanks to seeing the location of all Glyphs on the map), and a larger selection of Glyphs increasing the likelyhood of getting a good combo.

The Sorcerer, with his increased Mana capacity, can cast BURNDAYRAZ twice from the get-go as well, and before long will probably be able to cast it three times. However he is more likely to combine BURNDAYRAZ with Melee Attacks to make use of his Mana Shield capability. Unlike other characters, the Sorcerer will usually begin his attack run with a Melee Attack, then benefit from each casting of BURNDAYRAZ restoring 12 points of Health to hopefully use for another Melee attack.

The Bloodmage gets BLUDTUPOWA from the start, meaning that if he can find BURNDAYRAZ early he's already got a great combo to work with. He also has health issues, making Melee combat less lucrative, but makes up for this with his ability to replenish his Mana for another BURNDAYRAZ-fest with just one Mana potion.

Fighter, Thief, Rogue, Assassin

All four of these classes will want to combine Melee attacks with BURNDAYRAZ to maximize the damage they can inflict on enemies. Each class will take a slightly different approach to this issue.

The Fighter's choice here is mainly availability. BURNDAYRAZ is usually available, so if there's no other use for the Fighter's Mana, why not cast BURNDAYRAZ? It can even be combined with BYSSEPS and/or GETINDARE as required. Of course, if CYDSTEPP is found, BURNDAYRAZ can usually be thrown away.

For the Thief, BURNDAYRAZ is a no-brainer. It can help reduce the enemy to the point where they thief's souped-up Melee Attack against that enemy will be enough to kill it. Couple this with the fact that more Glyphs are spawned on the map, increasing the chance of finding a good combo to go with the Thief's abilities, such as GETINDARE.

Rogues use BURNDAYRAZ for largely the same reason: It can help drop the enemy to a low-enough health where the Rogue's massive attack damage will finish it off in one hit. Since Rogues always have First Strike when attacking, this means that proper use of BURNDAYRAZ followed be a killing blow will retain the Rogue's health at 100%. Combine with BLUDTUPOWA, and you've got an extremely powerful spellcaster on your hands.

Last but not least, Assassins benefit greatly from their starting Glyph, APHEELSIK, which makes an excellent combo with BURNDAYRAZ once it's found. Explore around the enemy to gain First Strike, and you've got a three-glyph-combo using only two Glyph slots. Again, combine with BLUDTUPOWA if possible for a sure-winner.

Transmuter

The Transmuter has a choice between Melee and BURNDAYRAZ attacks, which depends mostly on the specifics of each dungeon.

Choosing BURNDAYRAZ as your primary attack carries several benefits. It takes the pressure off refilling your Health (by destroying walls), and gives an even greater advantage if BLUDTUPOWA is found (the Transmuter can keep BLUDTUPOWA activated constantly, without any adverse effect). If you can manage to secure this combo, all you need is Mystera Annur.

Half-Dragon

The Half-Dragon is the only character for whom BURNDAYRAZ is utterly useless. When playing a Half-Dragon, the Mana cost of using BURNDAYRAZ jumps up to 99 - well beyond any conceivably-reachable level. Therefore, the Half-Dragon cannot cast BURNDAYRAZ at all.

Vampire

More than any other spellcaster in the game, the Vampire epitomizes the use of BURNDAYRAZ.

Vampires pay for Glyph use with Health instead of Mana (in fact, they have no Mana at all). Like all other characters, Vampires' Health rises with level, unlike Mana. And since Health rises pretty quickly, reaching several dozen by level 4 or 5, the Vampire can quickly reach a position where he use BURNDAYRAZ repeatedly in a row. By level 4, the Vampire can cause 96 points of damage with BURNDAYRAZ, enough to kill most monsters of level 5 or even 6 without breaking a sweat. Acquiring extra Health by any means can push this up even higher.

To make things even better, Vampires have a massively-powerful Melee Attack, and always possess First Strike. This means that after all that BURNDAYRAZ mayhem, they can inflict an additional whopping amount of Physical damage to their enemies, potentially killing them outright. This pushes the limit on the level of monsters you can kill up to 2, 3, or even 4 levels above your own! Vampires at level 5 usually opt to find and kill the weaker level-9 monsters, if any can be found. They are that strong.

The only caveat is that the cost of each use of BURNDAYRAZ increases by 1 each time it is used in succession. Therefore, the first casting will cost 6 Health as normal, the next costs 7, then 8, and so forth. This only resets once you make a Melee attack, which you usually will want to anyway. Against bosses or other high-Health monsters, it may be prudent to make a Melee attack against a weaker monster half-way through a battle with a tough monster, to reset the cost of BURNDAYRAZ and allow most castings.

BURNDAYRAZ and the Gods

Several Gods in the game have various opinions about the use of BURNDAYRAZ - they may favour it or reject it, depending on their own particular creeds.

Mystera Annur

As the Goddess of the Arcane, Mystera Annur will not only appreciate the use of BURNDAYRAZ, but will actually enhance it. Characters relying heavily on BURNDAYRAZ will want to seek out and worship Mystera as soon as they get the Glyph, assuming her altar exists in the dungeon.

Mystera will grant you +1 Piety point for each use of BURNDAYRAZ, as she does for any Glyph use. If the "Faith" boon is acquired, this is doubled to +2 Piety per use.

All other Mystera Annur boons will assist greatly in the use of BURNDAYRAZ. Her "Magic" boon increases your Maximum Mana by 15 points, allowing at least two additional castings of BURNDAYRAZ in a single attack run (3 if you're a Wizard!). And to deal with pesky Magic Resistant monsters, her "Weakening" boon will remove the Magical Resistance of all monsters in the dungeon!

But the crowning jewel for the spellcaster is of course "Flames": this boon increases the damage you do with BURNDAYRAZ by 25%, which has an obvious benefit in making every point spent on BURNDAYRAZ count for even more. Assuming no Magic-Resistant monsters remain in the dungeon, taking this boon can ensure victory entirely.

Of course, it's always important to remember that aligning with Mystera Annur means permanently giving up your Melee attack. For this reason, it is not recommended for characters who rely on a mix of BURNDAYRAZ and Melee, unless they can back this up with plenty of Maximum Mana, a powerful Glyph Combo, and/or powerful items that will assist them as spellcasters.

Tikki Tooki

A great god for characters who use BURNDAYRAZ to weaken their enemies to a point where they can finish him off with First Strike. Tikki Tooki will reward you +4 Piety points when this occurs (assuming you take NO damage from the monster while doing this).

Such characters also make the best benefit from Tooki's boons, allowing them permanent First Strike and/or permanent Poison Attack to maximize their combined Melee/Magic tactics.

Note that this is not the best choice for characters who kill their enemies ONLY with BURNDAYRAZ. While they will still gain lots of Piety from killing their enemies without taking damage, they will find no use for Tooki's boons.

Taurog

As with any other Glyph, Taurog will penalize you -5 Piety points every time you use BURNDAYRAZ, whether or not it was successfully cast.

Binlor Ironshield

Binlor is also averse to the use of spells, and will inflict a penalty of -1 Piety point per each use of BURNDAYRAZ, as with all other Glyphs (except ENDISWAL).